Yes to Portugal and no to nuclear weapons

Oh, we remember when we were little socialist kids singing propaganda songs in our parent’s meetings without a faintest idea about the message. It sounded a bit like this:

Oh, those were the days my friend. Our mothers looked a lot like that woman with the red hat, except the poster emphasized women’s right to not wear a bra. Our fathers looked a lot like that man in the blue overalls, except the poster said no to nuclear weapons. And we’re sure Henrik Thodesen‘s father looked a lot like that man in that yellow shirt there, no further comment.

In every Eurovision final there is a funny entry. An entry that makes you laugh and sing along and wave your hands and just be happy. Bless those people that give you that. Homens da Luta is actually a Portuguese comedy group that parodies the songs from the revolution in 1974. And hey, revolution is trendy these days, at least a bit further south. We’re also extremely happy this song is about the new wine, because that means Alexanders Stenerud is present this year after all. Him being the new wine, that is.

We like funky socialists. They make us think of Hanna Kvanmo and Stein Ørnøi and Berit Ås and Ole Kopreitan and all those other people you should know if you’re Norwegian. Or of Victor Jara and Che Guevarra and those guys if you are to go international. It’s all good. There should be more of them in Eurovision. That’s not political. That’s just a style. Even a kinda trendy one. You know, war and peace and stuff is back on.

Tell us you don’t want the revolution to come after hearing this song. Tell us you don’t want to shout whatever in a megaphone. And tell us you don’t want to march through the streets of Düsseldorf claiming your Eurovisional rights. Chances are we won’t believe you.

A luta continua!

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I love love love the song… I remember when it came out and I was still riding high on frenzy of Egyptian revolution (I am a political nerd. My friends thought that I completelly lost it when to question “what did you do during spring break?” I replied “I watched Al Jazeera livestream some 16 hours a day, while talking about the happening on life chat with my other cosmopolitan friends!”)… so you can see why I loved it. Also, I come from country of Velvet Revolution… which was not only bloodless…but it was pretty entertaiming.

I feel weird when I listen to this on my mp3 player while waiting for my strategic studies class… because most of classmates are right wing, hawkish and hopelessly realistic politically (and they some of them even don’t know what Eurovision is).

On my blog I stated that I hope that this and other political-ish songs will cause drag queens and ladies in evening gowns do a flash mob towards their parlaiments. We need a change… and we need to maintain hope and joy.

This site is written by Guri Idsø Viken and Astrid Foldal from Norway. We are both communications professionals and writers and have shared our passion for Eurovision for years. We both grew up in the beautiful middle of nowhere, and as kids, the annual Eurovision final was their only share ... Continue reading →